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A Song Stuck in My Head

Pure Imagination from the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory—every so often I get it stuck in my head. It's not such a bad song to have stuck really, I suppose. But after the first few times of my brain playing it for me, I finally found myself thinking about the lyrics.





Come with me
And you'll be
In a world of
Pure imagination
Take a look
And you'll see
Into your imagination

We'll begin
With a spin
Traveling in
The world of my creation
What we'll see
Will defy
Explanation

If you want to view paradise
Simply look around and view it
Anything you want to, do it
Wanna change the world?
There's nothing
To it

There is no
Life I know
To compare with
Pure imagination
Living there
You'll be free
If you truly wish to be

If you want to view paradise
Simply look around and view it
Anything you want to, do it
Wanna change the world?
There's nothing
To it

There is no
Life I know
To compare with
Pure imagination
Living there
You'll be free
If you truly
Wish to be

It happens this way for me, and probably for you, too, that a song appropriate for what's going on in my life will plant itself in my brain. I'll catch myself singing sort of absent-mindedly, when finally, the lyrics catch up with the part of my brain that's supposed to be listening and paying attention. It's funny to think about the kinds of messages we are trying to tell ourselves. As you might guess, this one comes to me when I'm working in the studio.

YouTube - Pure Imagination

Welcome to the world of my imagination.

Working Out the Demons

I was in a mood a little over a week ago. Ever have that? It happens to me every so often—here comes Mr. Mood being all chummy. I didn't know what to do with him. I got a little tired of just listening to old music that would make my heart hurt (Billy Holiday, Marlena Dietrich, that sort of thing). So I opened up an old suitcase that I keep of collage materials and in it I found some of my work.

It was strange to see unfinished things that I had done or started years ago. I flipped through them, made a neat pile, and stuck them back in the suitcase... for a few minutes. Then I opened the thing back up, pulled the work back out, and hung a few pieces on the wall so that I would have to think about them. I had a couple of painted boards that I took a Sharpie® marker to, writing and writing until I felt like I didn't have to anymore—I could always paint over them. It was cathartic. I feel better.

When in doubt, get your Sharpie® marker out!

Dream One: The hat continues...

A few posts back I mentioned that I dreamed of a very cool hat, and that I was going to try to make it. Immediately I built the foundation for it, then applied the felt to it. But after that, it kind of fizzled for a bit. Yesterday, though, I took pity on the poor, little thing and began making the tentacle pieces.

I'm not sure what kept me from working on it, but I just couldn't. I had a little extra time yesterday as I waited for some clients to come in for a visit (that will be another post I'm sure). So, I started working on it. I'm really glad I did—the hat is going to be great.

All of that makes me think of one of my favorite pastimes—travel sketching. It took a while, but I learned not to abandon a project. Sometimes some of the stuff that seemed like pure garbage at the beginning turned out to be some of my favorite work by the end.

Don't give up.